There are more ways to write online using many sorts of writing tools then we could talk about in a month of Sundays, so to speak. Online writing is a great way to encourage guided creativity. This week you will have a chance to glance at a lot of them and try out the ones that interest you and that you think you might want to use in your classroom or role. You might not use all of them this year. That's what Diigo is for. If you find one you like but want to wait longer to use it, you have that option. Bookmark it and give it some tags that will help you when you come back to it. You won't be able to change all your projects in one year; the important thing is to begin to take the steps now.
I am going to talk about three types of online writing; blogs and wikis, online comics, and web sites. Choose the ones you think would be practical for your discipline or your age level. Upper Elementary and Middle School kids can create websites using the tools we have available. Carmen just pointed me to an excellent resource about blogging and the brain from Edutopia .It suggests giving each student a code name known only to the teacher so that students will feel less constrained about expressing their real opinions.
Although you are using a blog as part of your experience in this class, there are many ways people use blogs in their classrooms. Some pose questions and have their students answer them in a blog comment or response; some manage their classrooms in a blog; some post things for parents in a blog. Some just reflect. If you want to start a blog for your class, there are more places to look than just blogger. If you teach young children, privacy is a concern. You might want to try some place like Kidblog where we set up accounts this year for many classes. There is also a blog called Blogmeister (I have a school code for this) that has private and safe blogs. National Geographic has blogging sites for kids to talk about books at the DogEared Book Blog Blogs are becoming more and more accepted as ways to use in the classroom for student expression. Here's an excerpt from Powerful Learning Practice's blog about students who blog.
Wikis are another online writing tool you might want to try in your classroom. Wikis cannot be used by multiple students at once unless each person has their own page or space for writing. The posts are not chronological as in a blog but instead are updated as the person works on them. There is a history kept of whenever a wiki is edited and one can go back and see what steps and who edited each post.
Here is another post about using Wikis in case you need more ideas about how to use them. You should ignore this if you already use them or know how you would use it.
A wiki designed to be used by elementary students is PikiWiki. It is private by default and writers must be invited. It has a drag and drop interface. Another is PBWikis. You just need to pick one that appeals to you. I am using WikiSpaces where you can create a wiki as a teacher and they approve it. I think it is more difficult to keep it private. Here is a getting started link from Wikispaces. They give you wikis for free. And this page helps you learn more.
Of course assessment is an important part of blogs and wikis. Here is a blogging rubric shared by another person. It might be a good kick-off for thinking about that.
Another sort of online tools is Scrapbook-like interfaces. Another multiple use site that can help tell stories with photos is Scrapblog. If you send pictures of your class to a closed Flickr account, the tool can load pictures right from there. Again, the book is published online and this one will actually scan your pictures for you but the cost is higher and the pictures stand a chance of being lost. Notice that people can work together to make an online book with this tool. Another place for young authors to read and write stories is at Big Universe.
Comics are another type of online writing. This person is way more creative than I but she offers many ideas for using comics in the classroom.
Go Animate is quite appealing to students. This tool would be more appropriate for older students. There is an educator account available here and you can add and manage up to 100 students for free. You could have students use it to introduce vocabulary, recreate a scene from a book, conduct a lab experiment, retell an historical event from a particular perspective. There is some limitation of the characters and scenes but students can upload voice. There is a nice explanation on the site about what it can do and tutorials (you are treated to one when you sign up) are available. Go Animate sometimes has inappropriate material so the GoAnimate people created DomoAnimate. It does not seem to have a teacher account so if you want to use it, the children would use the one account or you can ask your tech coordinator to create some for you. Here is a little video from their site about using it in education. If you teach younger kids, try it instead. A tutorial is here.
If you are teaching conversation, why not make it more interesting with a cartoon site like the Garfield one? You are limited to Garfield stuff and there are some tempting links at the top so you may not want to use it with younger students. Also appealing to some of the young students is the Lego Comics site, found here. When you begin, you choose the number of panels you want. Then you can choose a background by dragging it to a panel. The library, found on the right side, has lots of vehicles and Lego objects to use in the story. The controls on the left side are for the size of the object. These can then be animated.They can be downloaded onto a student computer as well.
You might choose a writing task and let students put it in any of the available comic strips. Another one that has popped up recently is called Write Comics. This site does not have a registration but cannot be downloaded to the computer either. Students could, however, save their cartoon by using the snipping tool or the Insert tool for Word to add it to their personal folder. In the blank in the upper left hand corner, pick characters by clicking on them. Notice that there are sets of characters and objects from which to choose. You can move them around after they have been chosen. Backgrounds are added the same way. After you click on a dialog or thought box, a box appears toward the top allowing you to add the dialog you want.
On another note, here is a set of cartoons and characters called Grammarman. I have not perused everyone of them but those of you who have Grammar responsibilities, this might fit the bill. Carmen, this is a science activity from the Smithsonian. It might fit your course.
Probably the best known of the lot is Pixton. There is a school license but to try it with one project for your class, you could try the 30 day license for $1.00. Witty Comics is another site for comic creation. It has all pre-drawn characters and scenes so students concentrate on writing the dialog. And at Make Beliefs Comixstudents can choose and use a number of characters and generate things for them to say. If you want your students to do a Graphic Novel, a site for you to check would be Comic Master. The BBC has a site called Doctor Who that would suit older students well. Read, Write, and Think has another tool called Comic Creator 2.0. A compendium of comic ideas is found here. This year a couple of teachers used Bitstrips and enjoyed using it. You can set up student/class accounts without email addresses if you pay but the charge is nominal. Here is a link to tell you how to use it.
Making a web page is another exciting way for students to share their ideas with others. Working on research and sharing the results online is motivating and allows students to add almost anything they wish from scanned drawings to painted pictures to text. My favorite for this is Google sites. Your tech coordinator can set up your students with Google accounts for these (much better to use this than have them create accounts). I like them because they are private but if the person has the website address, they can be seen by that person without a lot of fuss. You will find almost everything you need to use them here.Here are some examples of Google Sites used in education. Let me know if you are interested in these as I know how to use them and can help you.
Also available are sites from Weebly. There is a sign-up and their privacy policy is clear about the under-13 set being prohibited from using them. You can edit pages by dragging and dropping parts and it is very user friendly. Here is a tutorial about Weebly by my friend Frank Miracola (who was the inspiration for my Free is Good classes--he recently died from cancer).
Another recent way of sharing online with others is the Fakebook "Facebook" site. And here is a link to the .pdf file that explains how it works. This is a little clunky to use so instead you can use a PowerPoint template created by a teacher found here. Here is the file for you to use. If you want to use it, the student will open it and edit it in PowerPoint.
And here is a link to download a similar one. Someone defaced it so I will have to find it again.
Some of you will want to explore other kinds of online writing tools. Wordcounter is a place that students can check their writing for over - used words. Students can take advantage of various kinds of online writing spaces.
I have debated over some time about where to put this next tool. I see it as being a very powerful tool, particularly for the older set but it has protections for young children as well. The tool is Museum Box. When you go to the site, you can see examples of student work in this area. DO NOT attempt to sign up our school. We already have an account. I made this tutorial so you can get an idea of how it works. It can use all kinds of input such as video, clipart from itself or images from the computer, web links, and it has sound resources as well. If you want to see some projects created by middle school kids, here is a gallery that was created by students of my friend Marilyn here in Michigan. I hope these give a bit more of an idea of what is possible.
There are more ways to write online using many sorts of writing tools then we could talk about in a month of Sundays, so to speak. Online writing is a great way to encourage guided creativity. This week you will have a chance to glance at a lot of them and try out the ones that interest you and that you think you might want to use in your classroom or role. You might not use all of them this year. That's what Diigo is for. If you find one you like but want to wait longer to use it, you have that option. Bookmark it and give it some tags that will help you when you come back to it. You won't be able to change all your projects in one year; the important thing is to begin to take the steps now.
I am going to talk about three types of online writing; blogs and wikis, online comics, and web sites. Choose the ones you think would be practical for your discipline or your age level. Upper Elementary and Middle School kids can create websites using the tools we have available. Carmen just pointed me to an excellent resource about blogging and the brain from Edutopia .It suggests giving each student a code name known only to the teacher so that students will feel less constrained about expressing their real opinions.
Although you are using a blog as part of your experience in this class, there are many ways people use blogs in their classrooms. Some pose questions and have their students answer them in a blog comment or response; some manage their classrooms in a blog; some post things for parents in a blog. Some just reflect. If you want to start a blog for your class, there are more places to look than just blogger. If you teach young children, privacy is a concern. You might want to try some place like Kidblog where we set up accounts this year for many classes. There is also a blog called Blogmeister (I have a school code for this) that has private and safe blogs. National Geographic has blogging sites for kids to talk about books at the DogEared Book Blog Blogs are becoming more and more accepted as ways to use in the classroom for student expression. Here's an excerpt from Powerful Learning Practice's blog about students who blog.
Wikis are another online writing tool you might want to try in your classroom. Wikis cannot be used by multiple students at once unless each person has their own page or space for writing. The posts are not chronological as in a blog but instead are updated as the person works on them. There is a history kept of whenever a wiki is edited and one can go back and see what steps and who edited each post.
Here is another post about using Wikis in case you need more ideas about how to use them. You should ignore this if you already use them or know how you would use it.
A wiki designed to be used by elementary students is PikiWiki. It is private by default and writers must be invited. It has a drag and drop interface. Another is PBWikis. You just need to pick one that appeals to you. I am using WikiSpaces where you can create a wiki as a teacher and they approve it. I think it is more difficult to keep it private. Here is a getting started link from Wikispaces. They give you wikis for free. And this page helps you learn more.
Of course assessment is an important part of blogs and wikis. Here is a blogging rubric shared by another person. It might be a good kick-off for thinking about that.
Another sort of online tools is Scrapbook-like interfaces. Another multiple use site that can help tell stories with photos is Scrapblog. If you send pictures of your class to a closed Flickr account, the tool can load pictures right from there. Again, the book is published online and this one will actually scan your pictures for you but the cost is higher and the pictures stand a chance of being lost. Notice that people can work together to make an online book with this tool. Another place for young authors to read and write stories is at Big Universe.
Comics are another type of online writing. This person is way more creative than I but she offers many ideas for using comics in the classroom.Tap Into The World Of Comics #2:Comic Version
View more presentations from S. Hendy.
For the youngest, this set of materials from Read, Write and Think is a great start. Or for poetry you could try the poetry machine from Scholastic or the magnetic poetry kits found here.
Go Animate is quite appealing to students. This tool would be more appropriate for older students. There is an educator account available here and you can add and manage up to 100 students for free. You could have students use it to introduce vocabulary, recreate a scene from a book, conduct a lab experiment, retell an historical event from a particular perspective. There is some limitation of the characters and scenes but students can upload voice. There is a nice explanation on the site about what it can do and tutorials (you are treated to one when you sign up) are available. Go Animate sometimes has inappropriate material so the GoAnimate people created DomoAnimate. It does not seem to have a teacher account so if you want to use it, the children would use the one account or you can ask your tech coordinator to create some for you. Here is a little video from their site about using it in education. If you teach younger kids, try it instead. A tutorial is here.
If you are teaching conversation, why not make it more interesting with a cartoon site like the Garfield one? You are limited to Garfield stuff and there are some tempting links at the top so you may not want to use it with younger students. Also appealing to some of the young students is the Lego Comics site, found here. When you begin, you choose the number of panels you want. Then you can choose a background by dragging it to a panel. The library, found on the right side, has lots of vehicles and Lego objects to use in the story. The controls on the left side are for the size of the object. These can then be animated.They can be downloaded onto a student computer as well.
You might choose a writing task and let students put it in any of the available comic strips. Another one that has popped up recently is called Write Comics. This site does not have a registration but cannot be downloaded to the computer either. Students could, however, save their cartoon by using the snipping tool or the Insert tool for Word to add it to their personal folder. In the blank in the upper left hand corner, pick characters by clicking on them. Notice that there are sets of characters and objects from which to choose. You can move them around after they have been chosen. Backgrounds are added the same way. After you click on a dialog or thought box, a box appears toward the top allowing you to add the dialog you want.
On another note, here is a set of cartoons and characters called Grammarman. I have not perused everyone of them but those of you who have Grammar responsibilities, this might fit the bill. Carmen, this is a science activity from the Smithsonian. It might fit your course.
Probably the best known of the lot is Pixton. There is a school license but to try it with one project for your class, you could try the 30 day license for $1.00. Witty Comics is another site for comic creation. It has all pre-drawn characters and scenes so students concentrate on writing the dialog. And at Make Beliefs Comixstudents can choose and use a number of characters and generate things for them to say. If you want your students to do a Graphic Novel, a site for you to check would be Comic Master. The BBC has a site called Doctor Who that would suit older students well. Read, Write, and Think has another tool called Comic Creator 2.0. A compendium of comic ideas is found here. This year a couple of teachers used Bitstrips and enjoyed using it. You can set up student/class accounts without email addresses if you pay but the charge is nominal. Here is a link to tell you how to use it.
Making a web page is another exciting way for students to share their ideas with others. Working on research and sharing the results online is motivating and allows students to add almost anything they wish from scanned drawings to painted pictures to text. My favorite for this is Google sites. Your tech coordinator can set up your students with Google accounts for these (much better to use this than have them create accounts). I like them because they are private but if the person has the website address, they can be seen by that person without a lot of fuss. You will find almost everything you need to use them here.Here are some examples of Google Sites used in education. Let me know if you are interested in these as I know how to use them and can help you.
Also available are sites from Weebly. There is a sign-up and their privacy policy is clear about the under-13 set being prohibited from using them. You can edit pages by dragging and dropping parts and it is very user friendly. Here is a tutorial about Weebly by my friend Frank Miracola (who was the inspiration for my Free is Good classes--he recently died from cancer).
Another recent way of sharing online with others is the Fakebook "Facebook" site. And here is a link to the .pdf file that explains how it works. This is a little clunky to use so instead you can use a PowerPoint template created by a teacher found here. Here is the file for you to use. If you want to use it, the student will open it and edit it in PowerPoint.
Facebook sample page - JFK.pptx
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Some of you will want to explore other kinds of online writing tools. Wordcounter is a place that students can check their writing for over - used words. Students can take advantage of various kinds of online writing spaces.
I have debated over some time about where to put this next tool. I see it as being a very powerful tool, particularly for the older set but it has protections for young children as well. The tool is Museum Box. When you go to the site, you can see examples of student work in this area. DO NOT attempt to sign up our school. We already have an account. I made this tutorial so you can get an idea of how it works. It can use all kinds of input such as video, clipart from itself or images from the computer, web links, and it has sound resources as well. If you want to see some projects created by middle school kids, here is a gallery that was created by students of my friend Marilyn here in Michigan. I hope these give a bit more of an idea of what is possible.
For this session, there is one point for documented exploration,
one point for creating something with a tool that you think might be useful in your classroom, and
one point for your blog entry telling how you might use online writing or why you think it will/will not be useful to you.
Have fun!